Before and After: Vintage Copper

In order to artfully display a few small scale carved pieces for the upcoming Steampunk Wedding, I thought glass bell jars or cloches would be the perfect solution.  They are pretty easy to find at thrift stores and, if worse comes to worse, you can always turn a glass bowl upside-down.  Here are a few of the glass objects I scored for a few dollars at St. Vincent de Paul in downtown LA.

A wooden cheese plate with glass cover, upturned bowl of floor-standing candle holder, and an old liqueur bottle (there was even a little bit of liqueur left in the bottle!).

After applying some weld lines and rivets to the wooden cheese plate, I painted on some iron paint and applied a rusting solution.  While I waited for the rust to develop, I applied a copper band to the rim and the handle of the glass cover, and dripped on some patina solution.  After a few hours of (very impatient) waiting time, this is what I ended up with!

Rust plated covered dish.

Next up, the glass bowl which originally sat in an iron stand, now discarded.  I upturned the bowl and turned it into a dome.  Using puffy paint (yes, the kind that comes in squeeze bottles) I dotted the lip of the dome with large dots (faux rivets) and applied copper to the whole lip.  A little patina solution and I have a display dome suitable for Capt. Nemo's parlor.